The Worst Best Year of My Life

My brother Peter (left) and I, ca 1980. Photo credit to my mom, Kathleen Myers

Though I had been gone only three years, when I came home from the Peace Corps in 1996, everything had changed for me. My family was in disarray. My friends were scattered. I had no idea what I would do with my life. My reentry was anything but smooth, but those months set me on a path that changed my life.

I came home in February, flying in from the tropics of Honduras first to my mom and step-dad’s house in…